Around Kids’ World in Games
Children play all around the world. They play to learn how to live. Under the
guidance of a thoughtful adult, games can teach:
! Responsibility. Hold up your end and don’t let down friends.
! Self-esteem. Take turns as leader and follower.
! Sociability. Remain friendly and polite under pressure.
! Self-management. Plan activities and control behavior to meet a goal.
! Integrity. To play fair and abide by the rules.
Games like tag, baseball, softball, and soccer can teach these admirable lessons.
Games from other places can also teach them. The following source was used
for much of the information in Around Kids’ World in Games: Games of the
World: How to Make Them, How to Play Them, How They Came to Be by Frederic V.
Grunfeld. Published by the Swiss Committee for UNICEF in 1982.
Games to Start Games
Use the following procedures to choose the first player, the leader, the first
move:
! Flipping a coin. Heads or tails? Correct wins.
! Holding a coin. Which hand is it in? Correct wins.
! How many sticks in hand? Correct wins.
! Sticks in hand match number of players. One stick is short. Short stick
wins.
! Roll pair of dice. Highest roll wins.
! Box of matches emptied on table. Players pick up one at a time. The
last player to pick up a match wins.
! Stick, bat, racket – players clasp in turn. Last one to clasp wins.
! Two players face each other, one hand behind each back. Extend other
hand with one to five fingers extended. Another player with back to
them calls out odd or even. Correct wins.
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Global Games
AUSTRALIA Rabbits in the Burrow Players form a circle and count off. The
first six players go inside the circle. One and two join hands making a burrow
with three, the rabbit, inside. Player four is the dingo, an Australian dog.
Player five is another rabbit who stays as far away from the dingo as
the circle will allow. When everyone is set, player six calls out,
“Begin!” The dingo runs after the rabbit out of the burrow. If the
dingo gets too close, the rabbit runs into the burrow and the rabbit in
the burrow must leave. This continues until the dingo catches a rabbit. That
rabbit becomes the dingo. From time to time the game begins again from the
beginning. That way everyone gets a turn.
CHINA Chase the Dragon’s Tail A dragon is a huge ferocious reptilian beast. All
the players get in line, the longer the line the better. The line is the dragon.
Each player holds on tight to the shoulders of the player in front. The first
player in line, the head, tries to catch the last player, the tail. Everybody tries to
keep the head from catching the tail. When the head manages to catch the tail,
the head is out and the tail becomes the head. When everybody is out except
two players, the game starts all over again.
ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM Scotland Yard Scotland Yard is a famous police
station in London, England. The game is played after dark. A police investigation
is conducted. Prepare cards to match the number of players. One card says
“SUSPECT.” Another card says “DETECTIVE.” Every other card says,
“WITNESS.” The cards are placed face down in a pile. Each player picks a
card. The minute the player picks the detective card, that player leaves the
room. When the detective is gone and the door closed, the suspect is
identified. The detective is called back in and stands at the door. The lights are
turned off and the suspect and witnesses move about. The suspect touches a
witness. The witness screams and falls. The detective asks three questions of
everyone except the poor victim. The suspect may lie. Everyone else must tell
the truth. When all the allotted questions are used up, the detective turns to
the one suspected and says, “You are the criminal!” The detective is fired if
wrong and the game starts from the beginning. If right, the detective is the
detective again.
FRANCE Swap by Numbers Players are seated on chairs in a circle. One
player remains standing in the center. The standing player picks a seated player
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and begins to count off. The players must remember their numbers from that
point. The standing player is blindfolded and calls out, “two – six” and those
players change seats very quietly. The blindfolded player tries to get one of the
seats before it is filled. If the player gets a seat, the number comes with it. The
displaced player is blindfolded and the game continues.
GERMANY Golden Bridge Players count off. Players five and six clasp hands
and raise them to make a bridge. Secretly they decide that one will be a rod and
one will be a spear. The other players secretly decide to be a rod or a spear.
They form a line and begin to walk under the bridge singing.
Golden bridge, golden bridge
Golden bridge over the water,
Who broke you?
The goldsmith and his daughter
All march through
With rod and spear held over you.
At the second “you” the player under the bridge is captured. Secretly rod or
spear is whispered and the captive is told to stand behind the choice. When all
players have been captured, the rod and spears have a tug o’ war.
GHANA Fishermen A line is drawn on the ground in an irregular shape to
make a lake. Four players become fishermen and they are given a long piece of
rope, which becomes a make-believe net. The other players
swim around in the lake. Everyone begins to sing any wellknown song. The four fishermen grasp the rope and wade into
the lake. The continually move forward as they try to capture as
many fish as possible in the lake. The players who are caught
leave the game. Fish can get behind the net and avoid capture for a long time.
When all the fish are caught, a new game starts with new fishermen.
GREECE Pebbles Players need a base, which can be a tree, wall, or post. They
need a pebble, which can be a stone, a marble, or a button. Players stand in
line shoulder to shoulder facing IT. IT has the pebble in one hand and moves
down the line pretending to place the pebble in each hand. When the pebble
actually changes hands, the player with the pebble runs to
the base and tries to touch it. If the player makes it to base,
the player then becomes IT and the game starts all over again.
NETHERLANDS
Windmill Windmills are everywhere in the
Netherlands, or Holland. Storks perch on them. To start the game,
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the children elect a Berger. The Berger draws a big square on the ground. The
box is the “canal” and is the base. The lines are for the children. The Berger
picks two children to be storks. The storks choose sides and each draws a line
away from the box. The lines are parallel. Each team lines up behind its line.
The storks stand closest to the box. The storks begin to flap their arms like
wings and to stand on one foot and to weave from side to side like windmills.
Team members should imitate the storks. The Berger watches to see that the
teams follow their leaders. Every time the Berger looks away the teams go wild
and try to trick the Berger. When a player is caught in a mistake, the Berger
calls out, “Windmill!” Then the Berger tries to tag the player. The player tries
to reach the canal and safety. If safety is reached, the player rejoins the game
and ‘follow the stork’ begins again. If the player is caught, the canal becomes a
jail. A new games starts when all the players are in jail.
INDIA Cheetahs and Cheetals The cheetah is a spotted cat and a cheetal is a spotted
deer. To begin the game three parallel lines are drawn on the ground about
twenty feet apart. A leader is chosen and the other players divide into two
teams, the cheetahs and the cheetals. The two teams stand back to back along
the center line. The leader calls out loudly, “Chee-ee-ee” and then suddenly
ends with “tals” or “tahs.” If the word is cheetahs, the cheetahs run to the line
they are facing with the cheetals in hot pursuit. If the word is cheetals, they are
pursued. Those tagged are out. The game is over and can begin again when all
but one have been tagged.
UNITED STATES, NATIVE AMERICANS Stop the Dancers A player sits in the
center of a circle with a drum and a drumstick. All the other players
stand around the drummer. The drummer begins to beat the drum
and the players begin to dance. The minute the drummer stops, the
dancers freeze. They may be in awkward positions, but they must not move an
inch after the drumming stops. If the dancers do move, they must leave the
group. The drummer beats slowly as each game starts and gets faster and
faster. When the players are all out but one, that final dancer becomes the
drummer and the game begins again.
IRELAND Blarney Stone The Blarney Stone is a famous stone in a castle in Ireland
that people kiss for luck. Players begin by choosing an object to be the Blarney
Stone, a tree, a rock or a box. Then they choose a leader and two teams. All
the children then line up facing each other with the Blarney Stone in the
middle. Players close their eyes and clasp their hands behind their backs. The
leader calls “Go!” and the players walk slowly toward the Blarney Stone. The
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leader calls “Stop!” and the players run to the Blarney Stone. The first player to
touch the stone, stays, holding tightly to the stone with one hand and reaching
toward the other players with the other hand. Then the leader calls “Blarney
Stone!” and the players run as close to the Blarney Stone as they can without
being tagged. When a player is tagged, the player touching the Blarney stone
clasps the player’s hand with the unattached hand and the game starts again.
Soon there will be a chain of players. When all the players are in the chain but
one, the player holding the Blarney Stone calls out “Blarney, Bum, Run—
Run—Run!” Everybody starts after the last free player. When caught, that
player touches the Blarney Stone and the game begins again.
ISRAEL Shemot, Names A group of players gather in a circle. One player
holds a ball. The player with the ball throws it high in the air and calls out the
name of one of the players. The player who is named, runs to catch the ball.
That player throws the ball high in the air and calls another name. That
continues, throwing, calling, and catching. When the game is over, the players
know each other a lot better.
JAPAN, Crab Race
Two teams line up facing a goal line. The first
player in each line
gets into the upside down crab position. Faces
look up, tummies are up, and feet and hands support bodies. At the starting
signal, the crabs crawl head first to the goal line. Then they turn around and
crawl back to where the next crab waits, already in position. When all the crabs
in one row have crawled to the goal line and back, they win.
KOREA
Omok Korean Tic-Tac-Toe This game is played on a board
covered with a grid that is 19 by 19. This makes 361 intersections. One player
has a pile of black counter and the other white. The winner of the last game
between the two plays with the white. If this is the first game between the
players, a game to start a game can be used to assign the white. The player with
the white begins play by placing a stone on one of the intersections. The
person with black follows. The players take turns until the winner gets five in a
vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row. Then the game is won and can begin
again.
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LEBANON Stone Toss Each player has four pebbles. Players draw a line on
the ground and then walk about eight feet away and stand in a straight row
facing the line. Each player digs a small hole on a spot parallel to the drawn
line. The hole is the goal for each individual player. The players return to the
line and toss the pebbles one by one toward their own individual holes. The
winner is the player whose hole has the most pebbles inside, whether thrown
by the owner of the hole or somebody else.
MEXICO Jump Rope Jump rope is an international game. A short rope can be
held by one jumper with one hand holding each end. A long rope can be held
at each end by two players with the jumper in the middle. Really good jumpers
can jump very, very fast. Along the border of Mexico and Texas, players chant
as they jump:
Brown as a coffee-berry, red as a bean,
That’s the prettiest color I’ve ever seen.
Yellow as a daisy, black as ink,
That’s the prettiest color I do think.
Orange as a pumpkin, green as grass,
Keep on jumping as long as you last.
PHILIPPINES Cat and Mice The players choose a leader, the cat. The other
players, the mice, sit in a semi-circle in front of the seated cat. Piled in
front of the cat are treasures, objects such as stones, sticks, balls,
leaves, or flowers. The cat guards the treasures while the mice try
to divert the cat’s attention and steal one or more of the
treasures and toss them behind a shoulder before being
tagged by the cat. If tagged, the treasure goes back to the cat. When
all the treasures are stolen, the game can start again with a new cat.
RUSSIA Steeple Bell Russia has very cold winters so this game is played in the snow.
The only equipment is a bell, a very small bell. One player is chosen as the
leader and another is chosen as a steeple guard. A large square, the building, is
tramped into the snow. In the exact center of the large square the players
tramp a small square, the steeple. Then diagonal lines are tramped from corner
to corner, making an ! over the big and small squares. The guard enters the
steeple. Players line up all along the sides of the building facing the steeple.
The guard is blindfolded. The leader hands the bell to a player. The leader
goes to a corner of the building and leads the other players along the tramped
sides of the building. The player with the bell rings it softly. Players follow the
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leader around and around, passing the bell from player to player. Each player
in turn softly rings the bell. After the building has been circled a few times, the
leader starts toward the steeple along one of the diagonal lines. Players keep
moving and the bell keeps ringing. The guard claps and pulls off the blindfold.
Players stop and run to the steeple, surrounding the guard. The player who has
the bell at the time, drops it in the steeple and runs away from the guard. The
guard picks up the bell and runs after the player who dropped it. Neither can
leave the square that is the building. Then all the players begin to chase the
guard. If the guard catches the player, that player is the next guard and the
guard is the next leader. If one of the players grabs the bell from the guard, the
guard must chase that player. And so the game goes on.
SCOTLAND Wee Bologna Man Players choose a Wee Bologna Man. They
make a circle with the Wee Bologna Man in the middle. The Wee Bologna
Man calls, “I’m the Wee Bologna Man! Always do the best you can to follow
the Wee Bologna Man!” The Wee Bologna Man pantomimes an action, the
sillier the better. A player who fails to follow the Wee Bologna Man is out. As
more and more players leave, the Wee Bologna Man gets faster and faster.
While there are still a few players in the circle, the Wee Bologna Man chooses
the next Wee Bologna Man. The circle is formed again and the game can
continue.
TURKEY Kukla, Hit the Can Each player must have a beanbag. The players
draw long parallel lines on the ground about fifteen feet apart. One line is the
home line and the other is the goal line. A large can is placed in the middle of
the goal line. A one-foot circle is drawn around the can. Each player lines up
behind the home line holding a beanbag. They take turns tossing their
beanbags at the goal line. The one whose beanbag gets closest to the goal line
becomes the guard. The guard moves into the circle behind the can. The
players reclaim their beanbags and take turns trying to knock the can over, even
to knock the can out of the circle. When the can is knocked over, the player
runs to get the beanbag back before the guard can set the can straight and tag
the successful player. It is a hard job to knock over the can so there are a lot of
beanbags around on the ground by the time it’s tumbled. So when the
successful player knocks over the can, all the other players have the chance to
get their beanbags back. If the beanbags are behind the goal line, they can be
tagged and become the guard. So if the guard gets too close to players, they
can stand on the goal line or their own beanbags in safety for one whole game.
When every player but one has been the guard, the Kukla has a winner.
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